BRITAIN: David Cameron has been accused of chasing headlines and peddling dangerous nonsense after suggesting that a future Conservative government would replace the Human Rights Act with a US-style "Bill of Rights".
Mr Cameron yesterday claimed the Labour government's 2000 Act - incorporating the European Convention on Human Rights in British domestic law - undermined the fight against both crime and terrorism. And he said the Tories would be "the hard-nosed defenders of security and freedom" with alternative "home-grown" legislation which would "spell out the fundamental duties and responsibilities of people" living in the UK.
Mr Cameron claimed the Human Rights Act had created "a culture of rights without responsibilities", arguing: "It is practically an invitation for terrorists and would-be-terrorists to come to Britain, safe in the knowledge that whatever crime they may have committed in their home country, and whatever suspicion there may be that they might be planning a terrorist attack in the UK or elsewhere, they won't be sent back to their country of origin and may not even be detained, because the process is so complicated and time-consuming for the government."
Mr Cameron's commitment came just weeks after prime minister Tony Blair was reported ready to consider "sweeping changes" to his own Human Rights Act following a judge's decision to block the deportation of nine Afghans who hijacked a plane to Britain.
In a leaked letter to home secretary John Reid, Mr Blair - who called the decision to allow the hijackers to stay "an abuse of common sense" - told Mr Reid: "We will need to look again at whether primary legislation is needed to address the issue of court rulings which overrule the government in a way that is inconsistent with other EU countries' interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights."
However, Mr Cameron's proposal for an alternative British "Bill of Rights" was rubbished by attorney general Lord Goldsmith as "muddled, misconceived and dangerous." The government's independent reviewer of terrorist legislation, Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile, said he could see no benefit deriving from Mr Cameron's "extraordinarily ill-thought out proposals."
Former home secretary Charles Clarke spoke out publicly against Tony Blair last night, accusing the prime minister of losing his "purpose and direction". And in one of a series of interviews, he also launched a ferocious attack on the "populist" style of his successor, John Reid.
Mr Clarke - who lost his job in May's reshuffle at the height of the foreign prisoners debacle - told the Times: "I do think there is a sense of Tony having lost his sense of purpose and direction so my advice to him is to recover that sense of purpose and direction and that remains the best option."